Thanks very much for the opportunity to be here, Brothers and Sisters. First let me start off by bringing greetings on behalf of the officers of the Canadian Labour Congress [CLC] and its two and one-half million members across this country. I also want to express special thanks to Mehdi and Farid whom I’ve known for a long time, it seems almost for decades and decades now! Mehdi and Farid have consistently talked about the important struggle of the Iranian workers in terms of the desire of those workers to have independent democratic unions in that country. For many of us who have not been familiar about the situation in Iran, Lord knows that we owe a great deal to our contact with these two very progressive Brothers here and their commitment and determination to continue to put this issue on the table for the workers in this country to consider.  I also want to welcome my Brothers who have traveled a great distance to be here and I’m sure at great risk to themselves and their personal safety in order to come to Canada to tell everybody their important stories of the challenges they face in their country. I dare not put myself in their shoes in regard to the challenges they face, but more importantly, dare not compare my situation here in Canada to the risk that they take in telling us their important story in regards to their presence here. So I really want to once again recognize that this is an important juncture in terms of the work to be done throughout this country, in order to broaden our solidarity with the workers of Iran.  It is critical for me to also say that when the Iranian revolution first took place, I think most of us in the western hemisphere were quite pleased to see a repressive regime—one that abused so much of its power and collaborated so much with an imperialist government—was finally overthrown. The repressed working people had finally gone out, hoping again that the day had come when the revolution would result in truly a working people’s agenda. But of course, as the years have gone by, I need not repeat what we have all seen and heard in regards to the Iranian government’s repressive regime, in particular, how they continue to fundamentally violate workers’ rights in that country.  But this is an important juncture, I think, in the work that is going on in Canada—to make known what is happening to workers from and in Iran. I am fully aware of the struggle for workers’ rights there, beginning with the oil workers in Iran and the development in separate resolutions of support within the CLC. We’ve written letters and of course I’ve taken up the issue with the International Labor Organization [ILO]. And similarly, you all know about the undemocratic nature of Iranian unionism as it presently exists and the desire of progressive unionists to build a truly democratic labour movement. The challenge is not an easy one, especially in the context of a repressive state apparatus that must be dealt with, one that has enourmous power and the ability to—not to kill people necessarily—but certainly to put them away for quite a long time if they challenge the regime.  But Brothers and Sisters and friends, I really want to say that your struggle is not that different than many others that are currently being waged around the world. Many others that have been successful. So I’ll speak here a little bit about some of these before I conclude. As Brother David Kidd said, the South African struggle was an important one, not that we can compare the apartheid regime with that of Iran, but certainly in terms of building working class consciousness in this country. South African workers were challenging that very very repressive regime in South Africa to change to one in which all could participate, if they were to ever have democratic elections. That was a very rich and divided struggle. As a young activist I became very much involved in the South African workers’ struggle, recognizing that, yes, my contribution would be small as it had to be the workers in South Africa who would ultimately make the sacrifice. But what I felt was very important was the need to continue to expose what the apartheid regime was all about, and how to emulate the examples of these particular workers. If there will ever truly be a militant working class concensus to change the world, we have to be in strong solidarity with those workers struggling within repressive regimes. As one example of the actions that we did at that time, we boycotted South African fruits and vegetables, thereby challenging supermarket managers to say: “Ahh, we shouldn’t be selling those products in our premises.” And we thereby built consciousness among the working people that they ought not support and patronize a regime that is exploiting their workers.  Ultimately at the end of the day the South African people prevailed, and ultimately their revolution finally happened in 1994 with the first true democratic elections. It was a joy for me to go back there and to witness that event first hand as one of the observors during the election, and of course I think that for many workers in this country we never thought, in our lifetimes, that we’d see the apartheid regime come crumbling down. And of course it did.  The second observation that I would like to make is about a struggle that is going on right now and some of you may be aware of it. It is the struggle in Columbia, a country in Latin America, where workers every day are being murdered. Not because they are militants, but because they are doing what I take for granted every day, they are doing something that is so fundamental to what I take for granted every day. They are defending workers’ rights to belong to democratic unions, to challenge their employers in regards to privatization and of course to challenge the imposition of the neo-liberal model in their country. And every year thousands and thousands of workers continue to die in that country. We have been building in this country a great solidarity network that continues to expose the regime in Columbia for what it is, a repressive regime supported by the United States and Canada and other governments, a regime that murders trade unionists because they are trade unionists who aren’t afraid to defend the democratic right to challenge the state and of course to challenge capitalism.  This is not an easy challenge to make because trade union workers who become leaders of the trade union movement in Columbia ultimately lay a death sentence on themselves. And I know Columbian Brothers and Sisters who have come to visit us in this country, who I have met in my travels, who are today dead as a result of their activities in the trade union movement in that country.  Right now we in the CLC are involved in probably one of the most important projects that we have ever undertaken in common, and that is to ensure that workers’ in Columbia whose lives have been threatened and who want to leave their country, and who indeed must leave to find sanctuary in other countries, should be able to come to Canada as political refugees. But more important, we as trade unionists should sponsor them to come here for whatever period of time they think they need to stay, so they can find the necessary energy to continue the struggle and to decide how they can recommit to that struggle back home, and more importantly, escape death. Many of us have been involved in that project. This is very very grassroots work that is going on across Canada, and again, we continue to use the networks that we have built to expose that repressive regime.  That is one of the reasons that I’d like to talk a little bit today about Burma. As you know, the Burmese democratic movement has been in existence a long time, and the dictatorship has not yet ended. Far too many workers are working in workcamps in that country, and far too many workers are still being used as prison labour in that country, all for the betterment of multinational and national corporations. Again, workers here in Canada have been involved in that struggle, again by showing solidarity to workers who are struggling to regain democratic control over their country and more importantly to end the dictatorship—and ultimately to build democratic unions. And there have been democratic unions that have been elected in exile that can talk about the importance of us here in Canada doing solidarity work in support of their struggle.  Like any other struggle, the Iranian workers’ struggle is only going to be won through the consciousness of working people throughout the world joining us in solidarity with you. And I want to ensure the Brothers and Sisters that are here today that they are going to spend a lot of time deliberating as to where this is all to go, for we need to recognize labour solidarity through the labour conference in regards to the work that you are doing and the need for us to continue in solidarity with each other. It is required, I think, for us to continue to put the issues at the forefront of all our activities. It can’t simply be, Brothers and Sisters, that it is the former citizens and Comrades of Iran who wage this battle alone; regardless of what our aims are or where we come from, as Canadian trade unionists we should be at the forefront of those people who are exposing the abuses of the Iranian regime and who are putting these issues on the agenda.  We must continue to use the Ayatollah as a way to expose the Iranian regime for what it really is—and to continue to show how it is violating core ILO labour standards in regards to workers having the right to chose their union democratically and having the right to negotiate with their employer. Yes, some of this seems to be very basic; like a  campaign asking people to write letters to the Iranian regime to inform them that we are aware of their actions, to make them aware that the eyes of the world are not closed, and that we are fully conscious of what they are doing in that country. But it is also about us continuing to use labour councils, local unions, federations of labour, affiliates, conventions, and also the upcoming Canadian Labour Congress convention, to put this on the agenda so workers in this country don’t think of Iran as just a bunch of fanatics but instead really understand the workers in that country who are resisting what is happening to them and who ultimately want to decide their own destiny in building their democratic unions. This is not easy work, but I think the fact that we have Iranian Brothers who are visiting us here in Canada is crucial, and that it is critical that they tell their own stories, not through my voice but rather in their own voices. And it is crucial that connections are made, and that solidarity is built, because this is the only way that we can really change our understanding of what is happening in Iran. Far too often in our world, trade unionism is dismissed. But you are not going to convince me that unions are irrelevant—I spent a month travelling to Gaza and the West Bank, to Jordan and Syria, and I understand fully what trade unionism is about and know the people who practice it every day in those parts of the world. Yes Brothers and Sisters, friends and colleagues and Comrades, this deliberation today is very very important. But it is critical, I think, that you talk and you discuss, that hopefully part of what comes out of these deliberations is a strategy of how we can ensure that this work that you are doing continues to be part of the basis today of Canadian trade union international solidarity work.  We have to continue to do worker-to-worker solidarity because that is the only way that we can overcome the obstacles that divide us and keep us apart. And yes, you can come to my support as an officer of the Congress, to continue to let my voice be heard in support of your struggle, to assist you in this very rich and important struggle. Yes, there are tangible things we can all do. In all the years that we have been hard at work as trade unionists around the world, we have always offered assistance where we can best assist. We have been able to offer courses to our colleagues, not to tell them how to do collective bargaining, but at least to give them our experience as to how we achieved the right to collective bargaining. We have offered our assistance to show them what health and safety is all about and how we proposed health and safety issues within the complex relations of the workplace. We have been able to show them what our notions of human rights are, and how others can learn from that. But at the same time we too are learning in those exchanges. There are practical things that we can do; in the end I hope that there will come out of your deliberations some suggestions about how the CLC can fully appreciate and participate in the work you want us to do.  So in closing, for those of you in the delegation from Iran, I really want to thank you for the opportunity today to say a few words. I also hope that you have a truly productive Canadian conference. And more importantly, regardless of where you end up today in your deliberations, I want you to know that I would like you to come to my support in the future in order that I might help you ensure that Iranian workers uphold your struggle as well as uphold, well and truly, a working class movement around the world—a movement to change the societies that we live in. Thank you so much.